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MHI to compensate families of WWII forced labour victims

South Korea's supreme court has ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to pay compensation over South Koreans' forced labour in a shipyard during World War Two.

The Mainichi daily said the court threw out an appeal by the company.

It will now have to pay KRW 80m ($72,200) to each of five plaintiffs.

The bereaved families of five former workers sued MHI, saying they were forced to work at its shipyard and machine shop in Hiroshima with almost no freedom of movement from August to October 1944.

They also suffered from the after-effects of the atomic bombing there in 1945, they said,

The supreme court said the redress sought by the plaintiffs was for inhuman, unlawful actions committed by a Japanese corporation linked directly to the illegal colonisation of the Korean Peninsula by Japan.

It ruled that the compensation payment fell outside the 1965 agreement between the two countries that stated that the issue of redress between the two countries had been settled completely and finally.

MHI to compensate families of WWII forced labour victims

MHI to compensate families of WWII forced labour victims

South Korea's supreme court has ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to pay compensation over South Koreans' forced labour in a shipyard during World War Two.

The Mainichi daily said the court threw out an appeal by the company.

It will now have to pay KRW 80m ($72,200) to each of five plaintiffs.

The bereaved families of five former workers sued MHI, saying they were forced to work at its shipyard and machine shop in Hiroshima with almost no freedom of movement from August to October 1944.

They also suffered from the after-effects of the atomic bombing there in 1945, they said,

The supreme court said the redress sought by the plaintiffs was for inhuman, unlawful actions committed by a Japanese corporation linked directly to the illegal colonisation of the Korean Peninsula by Japan.

It ruled that the compensation payment fell outside the 1965 agreement between the two countries that stated that the issue of redress between the two countries had been settled completely and finally.

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